Sick as a Dog

Inuyasha knew something was wrong when he woke that morning to the smell of food, and…he felt the lightest touch of something over his left eyebrow. Now his right. He felt a soft line drawn down his cheekbone, down to trace his jaw to his chin. He was struggling for consciousness—but not too hard. The touch lifted back to his forehead, and slid slowly, slowly down his profile—brow, nose, top lip—until it came to rest on his bottom lip. The touch stayed there, and the pressure increased minutely; just enough to part his lips. His eyes fluttered open just in time to catch his wife's blushing face before she skittered across the room to where she had been preparing breakfast.

He turned his white head towards her. He felt a warmth settle in his belly when he raised his fingertips to his lips, where hers had just been. He dropped his hand and raised to one elbow to correct the sideways view of his wife. She was piling some food into two bowls now. One of the bowls had considerably more food, he noticed. He wondered if she had her appetite back yet, since she was giving herself so little. Wait, she had just gotten over an illness, what was she doing making breakfast? He frowned and sat up fully. What was she even doing up this early? She had already opened the windows, and by the looks of the sunlight coming in the one, it was well past dawn…

What was he doing getting up so late?

He almost continued that thought, when Kagome bent slightly to collect a cup, and he got a good look at her legs. The hem of the short kosode was just high enough to expose two violet marks above the tiny Miko's knee. With that image, any other concerns of his were replaced by his attempt to manage the grin that was appearing on his face. She had told him that the kiss marks were painless, and so, there wasn't really any harm in leaving them on her skin. He had used her left leg, then, as a visual tally for himself. He left one little mark on the soft flesh of her inner thigh for every time he had…given her goosebumps…after he noticed the accidental mark to her breast. Just the two were visible, but many more were concealed by the length of the garment. He may still need practice getting the hang of the full act, but certainly, with this particular operation he seemed to be a natural.

He must not have gotten his face under control, because Kagome immediately tugged the hem of her clothes down after she set down his food. He flushed and tried to look away from her, to give her some peace, but she just looked so adorable with her bottom lip held between her teeth.

He had been distracted for a moment, but it didn't take long for him to realize what the problem was. Kagome had told him she was adamant about resuming her training with Kaede. It had been much too long a break she took, what with the job and illness. Why did she act like he was actually going to forbid her from going? Truth be told, he preferred it when they were both working, so they could actually enjoy the hours they spent together. She had been gradually taking on more responsibilities in the village, including her first funeral for an elderly man who passed just before the trip. He would wonder around the forest for a bit, checking up on any demons or predatory animals that had wondered into his domain. Why would he keep her around another day? He would just have to take care of her again, and that meant that neither of them could do their jobs.

He jumped onto a tall branch when he smelled a pair of unfamiliar dogs around somewhere. He nearly fell from his perch the moment he landed, suddenly lightheaded. He rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath. That certainly wasn't normal. He blinked open his eyes and searched around, spotting the two dogs below. He dropped down, startling the animals for a brief second, before he himself grunted from the landing. His stomach lurched uncomfortably.

'Well shit.'

He shook it off with the sound of the two dogs attempting to stand their ground with half-frightened snarls. The dog hanyou bared his own fangs right back, growling louder than the two combined. With one snap of his teeth, the dogs were off like a shot, sprinting in the opposite direction of the village. Inuyasha placed a hand on his belly before continuing on his way through the village. The village dogs were well-behaved, but the mongrels that came down from the mountains were known to bite onto cattle or kill chickens. Inuyasha was responsible for the protection of the livestock in the village too.

There were actually quite a few nuisance animals that had wondered into Inuyasha's forest. It made sense. All-in-all he hadn't made any rounds in over a week, so there was plenty of shooing to be done. Usually a snarl or a snap got the animals running scared, but sometimes he picked up a stone, and flung it at the vermin's nose. It was one such incident with another dog that sent it yelping away. Inuyasha cringed at the sound, trying to forget it before his head began to pound. He figured illness was a big possibility, considering how close he kept in contact with Kagome while she was sick. He slept against the wall, and used a separate spoon for dishing her meals, but he couldn't help feeling her forehead or stroking her arms when she was kicking the covers off. He had a better tolerance for illness than humans might, but he had still been in a lot of direct contact with sick people as of late. Whenever he did get sick, he never let on how he was actually feeling. Any demon with a working nose would be able to smell sickness on him, but he refused to show that kind of weakness before humans.

His stop at the monk's house was brief, barely enough time to set a stew on and get out. Miroku had been awfully talkative yesterday, and the hanyou just had no interest in long conversations today. Not that he could blame the guy. He'd been cooped up in toddler jail for a week, and now Inuyasha was the only one he had to talk to. He imagined his friend was getting rather lonely without being able to leave the house for long. In a short conversation with Sango upon returning the twins, she missed her husband as well, so it was a lousy situation for everyone involved.

He swallowed when his mouth began to water and his stomach started to twist. He took a deep breath and willed away the urge to toss his breakfast. This illness was coming on quick. The only good thing about it was that it also meant it would be over quickly. A day or two, and he would be fine. He cringed at the pretty blue of the sky. It had better only be one day.

Kagome yawned loudly as she walked beside her husband. She had stayed later than she planned, Kaede having sent her to clean up the old shrine thoroughly today. Normally, Kaede didn't maintain it as well as she'd like, with the condition of her back in recent years. However, with the young back and a strong set of legs that Kagome had; Kaede had no trouble sending the younger woman up to sweep and dig up moss around the zillion or so steps there were…not that Kagome was complaining. Sometimes grandpa Higurashi had Kagome and Sota help out around their shrine, so Kagome knew this was the general maintenance that came with the job description. Shrine owners or Miko. She'd take this over high school any day.

"Hey, Inuyasha, how about grilled fish for dinner tonight?" The rabbit population must have been taking a dive, since that was all her husband had been catching for the last week. Not to mention you can only eat variants of rabbit stew so many nights in a row before you were completely sick of it. She saw the corners of his mouth twitch down further than usual at the suggestion.

"Okay, so what do you want to eat then?" She silently begged him not to say rabbit. Anything but rabbit.

Inuyasha frowned again.

"I'm fine with fish."

Kagome eyed him suspiciously, but said nothing.

Later that night, she noted that he only ate half the fish he usually did (which was still more than she ate). She made light conversation about his day, and nothing seemed unusual about him then. More problem animals had wondered into the forest than usual, including a pack of dogs. He had spent a good portion of the day tracking down and shooing those little annoyances away.

No demons though, so his last warning given to the snake demon he threw out had spread by word of mouth to any others that might consider the trip into the forest. Only a handful of demons had purposely come into the forest meaning challenge Inuyasha, stake their claim and eat the villagers. Inuyasha made sure not a one laid a finger on the humans who lived near. The last being the snake brothers. He remembered the tussle with the snake, it had frightened the entire village, and it was actually Sango who finished off the elder brother, but Inuyasha had given the younger an order to scram, taking word with him of the powerful demon that had offed his brother.

Kagome was awoken by Inuyasha's movement in his sleep, an odd occurrence. She leaned up to look at him when a barely audible whimper rang in her ears. Maybe he was too hot? He mostly slept fully dressed, and with the covers on top of him…she pulled the covers off of her sleeping husband, and watched his face twitch for a few seconds. His eyes came open with a huff of breath. Kagome blinked. She asked if there was anything wrong, and he confirmed her suspicions, relaying that he was way too hot.

"Then take your coat off," she suggested. His compliance without a trace of dismissal was out of character for him as he stripped out of the outer garment and tossed it to the side. He laid back down on top of the covers, and they both went back to sleep.

Kagome was mildly annoyed to find her husband sleeping back up against the wall as he had done her entire illness. She took a closer look, realizing that he had taken off his hakama at some point, and she relaxed a bit. He got overheated? Odd. She wondered…maybe he was getting sick too? He made a point of saying "demons don't get sick" whenever she asked him to be more careful, or take better care of himself. She had always pursed her lips and thought 'well yeah, but you're half human too.'

She woke him for breakfast, and left soon after, asking him to clean up since it was already a late start to the day.

Inuyasha grumbled bit, as was usual. He stared into his bowl and pushed the food around a bit, but he did not feel like eating it. He was angry with his body already. He had been feeling terrible from the moment he woke. He was hoping the recover overnight, and was disappointed when he didn't. He forced down what was left of his breakfast after twenty minutes of giving the food funny looks. He kept swallowing down the watering of his mouth as he washed out the dishes as his stomach flopped around uncomfortably.

He wondered out into the woods, looking to resume his normal routine, but just the same as yesterday, after running around and moving through trees for a bit, he moved a little too quickly. His head swam and he lost his balance. Only this time he did fall out of the tree and directly into the sticker bushes below. He groaned as he lay there, thorns scratching his face should he dare move. His head began to throb, probably having hit it on the trunk on the way down. So he just lay there, defeated.

"Was this how Kagome was feeling?"

He took deep breaths before opening his eyes and staring up into the bushes surrounding him. It was a nasty feeling, that was for sure. He wasn't certain how long he stayed there, but when he finally decided to remove himself from the damned thorns, the temperature had risen to an uncomfortable level. Normally the fabric of the Firerat kept some of the heat off him so it was a bizarre feeling to be sweating under it. Unless he had a fever. Did he have a fever? He couldn't tell just by placing a hand on his head, since his palms were sweaty as well.

"Dammit. Why'd I have to get sick now of all times?" He growled. He could already feel his strength waning, even more with the illness than was usual for this time of the month. If only he hadn't gone out of his way to take care of Kagome and Miroku.

Miroku. Damn, he'd forgotten all about the guy. He was supposed to be over keeping him company. Well, he supposed the monk would be feeling well enough to cook for himself today, so it wouldn't matter if he was feeling a little lonely. He'd be up and teaching the village kids kanji soon enough.

Inuyasha rolled himself to the side of a tree, propping his back against it to remove his suikan. It was better now, but he still felt overheated. He decided to crawl back into the house and take a nap on the cool hardwood floors. If anyone came knocking, he'd hear them in time to look alert, he was certain.

He felt like he was underwater—in the ocean—getting tossed around by the waves. No, that wasn't right. The ocean would be cool, and all around him, not like the warmth he felt pressed to his upper arms. Restricting. Something had him. Something had latched onto him and was dragging him off while he slept. He struggled against the grasp, but opened his eyes at a loud squeak...that sounded something like a surprised kitten.

His eyes darted around his surroundings only to find himself back in his house, staring into the confused eyes of his wife. He looked back down to himself, finding that he had been partially dragged onto their bedding, presumably by his wife. He felt tugging at his hands, and he realized he had both of his wife's wrists locked in a tight grip. The second he released her wrist, her hand came up to his face to stroke away the hair sticking to his forehead.

"Inuyasha, you're burning up. How long have you been sick?"

Inuyasha grunted and moved himself the rest of the way onto the bed, figuring there was no point trying to deny the illness. Kagome turned to the side to dip a cloth in cool water. He swatted at her hand when she tried to press the damp cloth against his forehead.

"I don't need all that. I ain't gonna die," he said gruffly.

Kagome pursed her lips and dropped the cloth back into the water.

"How long have you been sick?" she repeated.

Inuyasha said nothing and closed his eyes. He heard Kagome's annoyed sigh, but he pretended not to. He did, however, open his eyes to the rustling of fabric, to look out to see the covers dropping over his body.

"Hey, no, I'm already hot, don't do that," he growled and flipped the blankets back. He glared over to Kagome, only to be met with an even more intense glare.

"I'm just trying to help, okay?" She sighed and dropped the glare. "I got you sick, so I just want you to get better as soon as possible."

Inuyasha scoffed.

"Eh, I get it. If it weren't for the damn moon, I would've been fine by now…and…" he suddenly took a glance out the window. It was already early evening—just before dark. Of course it was! Of course he slept the entire day away like a lazy hog! Isn't that how his luck usually worked out?!

His thoughts were interrupted by a blurted apology from his wife. If she had known he could catch it so readily—with the new moon coming up—she wouldn't have expected Inuyasha to take care of her.

"Ah, damn, don't blame yourself for that," he returned, sitting up abruptly.

"You're being stu—" he cut off as he realized he jerked around too fast. Quicker than Kagome could follow, Inuyasha got up and sprinted for the door. Kagome followed quickly, making it outside as gagging noises reached her ears. Inuyasha was vaguely aware of the soothing hand rubbing down his back in-between retches.

"You're alright, you're alright," Kagome soothed as she crouched down next to him. She collected all his hair in her free hand as another wave came and he emptied the last of his mostly-digested stomach contents. The snarl that followed the last of the heaves didn't surprise Kagome in the least. She knew her strong, gruff husband hated to show signs of weakness, and vomiting right in front of their house must have really hurt him.

"Ugh, Let go'wa me!" He forced himself away from her and stumbled in the direction of the forest. Kagome called after him as she followed cautiously. She demanded he return to the relative comfort of their home, but he wasn't hearing a word of it.

"Inuyasha! Dammit, come back here!" she shouted in frustration, "OSUWA—" She slapped her hands over her mouth. She had almost said it! What a cruel thing to do to a sick man! She could barely see a thing in the forest as the sun dipped below the horizon, but she heard the crunch of forest debris and went flying in that direction. There, slumped against a boulder was her now human husband. She hurried over to him to find the man conscious, but just barely. He must have had a bit of a dizzy spell from marching off like that.

She sighed as she helped him to his feet. Even when he was well, he always overdid himself on these moonless nights. From what she could see of his face, he was completely out of it, but he could walk, so that was good. She wrapped a hand around his waist, threw his arm over her shoulders and started walking towards the house. As they neared the doorstep, Inuyasha came fully back to his senses, and shrugged out of Kagome's hold.

"Don't touch me. I'm fine."

Kagome rolled her eyes, which annoyed her husband further. He started back in the direction of the forest, stubbornly.

"Inuyasha! Where do you think you're going? You're really sick!"

"I'll be fine on my own, I don't need you treating me like some kid that can't take care of themselves," he grumbled.

Kagome grit her teeth. What did he just say? He did not just…she ran ahead of him, spinning to face him and stand in his way. She jabbed a finger into his chest.

"I've got a couple things to say to you. First, weren't you the one treating me like a sick kid not that long ago?" she waited for Inuyasha's frown and him trying to side-step her, "And another thing. What's this 'I can take care of myself' crap, huh? Wasn't it you who said you were glad I was around on the new moon? When was that? Two months ago?" she waved her hands slightly. "I just picked you up off the ground! Tell me you're fine! Tell me again how fine you are."

Inuyasha didn't say a word, but he squinted his eyes once, and tried again to step around her. With a growl of frustration, Kagome dipped forward…and hefted her idiot husband off the ground. With her arms around his chest and hips, she made sure not to put any pressure on his belly. He was shocked as she stumbled the few meters into the house and dropped him off at the edge of the raised floor. Kagome tried not to show the strain in her voice as she gave the next order. He was heavier than she expected.

"You," she took a deep breath, "are going to lay on that bed and wait patiently while I make you something to eat, are we clear?"

Inuyasha's eyebrows drew together and he opened his mouth to protest, but his adoring wife cut him off.

"I swear to every god known to man I will tie you up and make you lay still if I have to." It wasn't a threat. It was a promise.

With a growl, Inuyasha crawled back to the bed and flopped down with a glare aimed at the tiny young woman across him. She nodded approvingly and went about setting some tea on. Several minutes passed before he muttered something again.

"I'm fine, you know."

Kagome let out an exasperated sigh.

"Oh, would you quit that? Everyone gets sick, it's nothing to be ashamed of," she said with an indignant frown directed towards the wall. He tipped his head up to glare at her from the corner of his eye.

"Who tha hell said I felt ashamed? I ain't ashamed of nothin'," he spat back. Kagome took a deep breath. She was trying to cut him some slack. She did not want to argue with him anymore, especially when he was being as stubborn as he was about being in a weaker state. He seemed like he was going to test her patience if he kept on with that attitude though. Then again, he had always had a bad attitude, especially when he wasn't feeling up to snuff. She would admit to being a little cranky herself when she got sick, so, 'I can handle this,' she told herself. When the tea was ready, she poured a cup and took it over to him. Before she even made it over, he made it clear he wasn't going to drink something that smelled so foul.

"Drink it. You need something to settle your stomach so I can get some food in it."

"I ain't hungry."

"Inuyasha, you're going to eat."

A scoff.

"If I have to force-feed you, I will," she rebutted with amusement now intermingling with irritation. This threat seemed more idle than the last.

"Come on. I was good for you when you were taking care of me. Let me take care of you, stop fighting it."

He growled, but he seemed to take a moment to consider her words. She asked, cautiously, if he was going to cooperate.

"Fine, but I still ain't drinking that shit. Nothing that smells bad is going anywhere near my mouth."

Kagome grit her teeth in agitation and slammed the tea down in front of him before stalking off to the kamado stove. She got started on the stew, though she realized too late she had no meat to put in. Sometimes they ate without meat, but for a stew…why wasn't there any meat to put in? Oh, because Inuyasha always did the hunting. She could fish, right? No, not without a fishing pole. She could probably hit a rabbit with an arrow…if she knew where to look for them…

She turned a slow gaze back to her husband. She realized then that he had been staring at her the entire time she had her back turned to him. The darkness of his eyes somehow reminded her that he was the hunter in the relationship. It was normally so easy for him to snatch up any bird, mammal or fish she wanted for dinner, and he always did. It reminded her that she…had never actually learned to catch her own food. She didn't need to, because she relied on him to do it for her.

"What?" He griped when her gaze lingered a bit too long. She waved his question away and went back to it. Vegetable soup it would be.

She gave him a smaller portion of soup than he would normally eat, and she watched him stir the vegetables around for a while, taking random bites every minute or so. His eyes lifted from the bowl when she sighed and turned her gaze into her own vessel as she ate in silence. Inuyasha stirred around the last third of the bowl with more disinterest as he stared out the window at the darkened sky. He groaned quietly as his hand came up to rub his brow. Inuyasha pushed what was left of his dinner away and scooted back from his wife.

She suggested he lay down, and he scoffed, but complied readily. Kagome took care of the dishes as her husband got settled into bed. She was just putting the bowls away when she heard the scuff of calloused feet against her wood floors and felt a whoosh of air go past her. She hurriedly ran after, and from the sound of it, he had barely made it to the door before his dinner departed his stomach for the ground. Once again she held back his hair and laid a soothing hand on his shoulder. Once again he growled in anger, but this time, when he stood, he immediately fell back towards the earth. It was everything Kagome could do to catch him and prevent him from falling in his own mess.

"Inuyasha?!" she nearly panicked. Another dizzy spell. He looked back up to her with full consciousness this time. This time, he let her help him up with no fuss. She wrapped an arm around her shoulder, held him around the waist, and they walked back into the house, so that she could get him back on the bed. His skin was so hot. Had her fever gotten that high? She ran up and grabbed her laundry tub, setting it beside him as he had done with a bucket for her. That washtub would see worse things with all the blood and guts she knew she'd be washing out of their clothing at some point or another.

She brought back the bowl of cool water and cloth. Inuyasha groaned.

"I fuckin' hate this!" He growled in a human way.

"I know, hush." She pressed a hand to the center of his chest, and forced him to lay down once again. She grazed his cheek with the side of her hand, and she realized the temperature of his skin was very, very high. It was so worrisome.

Inuyasha finally calmed down a few minutes later, watching with interest as Kagome started a fire in the center of the room with the embers from cooking. She found something of interest to do against the wall at his feet, jotting down something in a notebook. Paper was easier to make in her time, so he had seen her use a lot of notebooks during her travels. He had looked at this one, just the first few pages full of scribbles he didn't understand, while the rest was blank. He even knew how to read a little, but he couldn't make heads or tails of whatever she had written in it. He wondered if it was common practice to learn other languages where she lived. Miroku could write in several, but that was part of his education as a monk. Inuyasha wondered what sort of trade might she have been pursuing if she hadn't come back to live with him?

He was drawn away from his thoughts when Kagome set the book down and crawled back over to him. He remained still as Kagome removed the cloth over his forehead, re-wet and replaced it. She pressed her knuckles against his cheek. She frowned and drew her hand back.

"God, Inuyasha. This fever is bad. How are you feeling?" She sat back beside the wall and picked up her notebook, but kept her eyes on him to wait for an answer. He grunted and eyed the book she held. It had some strange writing on the front cover, and below that she had written something he at least recognized as writing, though he couldn't read the kanji.

"What are you writing?" he asked, avoiding her question. It turned out to be a sufficient enough statement to draw her attention away. She closed the book and turned it over in her hands. She smiled gently.

"It's notes, from what I learn while I'm with Kaede. I only started writing them down recently, since I figure this book won't get much use other than that," she said quietly.

"Plants and uses and stuff?"

Kagome nodded.

"Mixed in with a few rituals. Mostly the plants though. I took a few decent health classes back home, but I don't know how much they'd help me here."

Inuyasha smiled. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

"That's good thinking. You've always been smart."

"…Wha…" she said, barely in a breath.

'Oh…he complemented me again…' Kagome didn't know why she felt so warm, hearing that. It was…natural for him to say nice things about her, they were married, after all but…it was so strange. And it felt really good when he said it so softly. He really meant that. She looked up to thank him, only for him to bolt upright and grab at the tub she had set beside him...

"Inuyasha, won't you have some tea?" Kagome asked while cringing and dragging to tub out to wash. "It really does settle your stomach. I can vouch for that."

"Ugh, not with it smelling the way it does," Inuyasha almost…whined…from his place on the bed.

"It might smell bad to your hanyou nose, but to a human's it's not that bad," she assured. Inuyasha's eyes opened to look back at the black-haired woman across from him. He rubbed a hand down his upset stomach.

"Fine," he grumbled. Kagome tried to hide the smile, encouraged by her small victory. She set the tea on to heat, and brought out the tub to wash. She returned with the tub and poured him out a cup to drink. It still had a smell, but pinching his nose did the trick, without the heightened olfactory senses. The taste wasn't as bad as it seemed either. It went down relatively easily.

A while later, Kagome noticed that while he claimed his nausea had gotten better, his temperature hadn't. The poor guy was sweating terribly, and he refused to let her cover him up. It stayed like that for the rest of the night, until an hour or so before dawn, Kagome finally heard the slight snore of a sleeping man. Kagome let herself nod off then, braced against the wall.

Unbeknownst to her, her husband startled out of his sleep cycle panting and sweating worse than he had been before. He couldn't even remember what he'd been dreaming, but his heart felt like it was going to pound right out of his chest. He swallowed, trying to catch his breath. It was always the fever dreams he hated. Always. He looked over to where his wife was sleeping, knees brought to her chest, and forehead resting atop folded arms. That couldn't be comfortable—he would know. He wondered if she would get sick again if she slept next to him. Then again, she hadn't gotten sick again last night, and she slept close for most of the night. He just needed to be close enough to smell her. That was probably why he hadn't had any bad dreams last night. That was probably why he hadn't had a single nightmare since she had returned. Other than the jobs, she had spent every night in arm's reach, whether in Kaede's hut, of their own.

'Of course,' he thought, 'of course she's the cure for bad dreams.'

He was so hot. He pulled the hair off the back of his neck, only to find his hair completely drenched, having stuck to his kosode while he slept. Which was also drenched. No wonder Kagome wanted a bath, even if it meant freezing water. He would have to do the same come morning…he hoped he would be better come morning. He hoped his one human night didn't extend this illness any longer than usual. Although, he could handle it as a hanyou. His human body…it was just so…so much harder on his body.

Wait. Other than the sweat drenching his clothes, did he still feel sick? The nausea was gone, the fever was—he slapped a hand to his head, though he couldn't get a good read. He stretched his back. All the fatigue he was feeling, the sort that made him want to sleep even on his human night…all gone. He was still a limp noodle, as he always was in this form, but he felt fine! He swung his head around to catch the sun rising with baited breath.

"Hell yeah!"

The exclamation woke the sleeping woman, who scrambled onto her hands and knees, blearily searching the room for danger. What she saw was a tall man with golden eyes staring down at her with what almost looked like...glee?

"Inuyasha?" She croaked. Inuyasha put a hand on his hip and chuckled.

"Well, I'm fine again."

Kagome blinked in sudden understanding. She smiled, pushing off her knee to stand in front of him.

"You're 100% fine? Not sick at all."

"Far as I can tell, yeah," he said with a shake of his head.

"That's wonder—" she stalled and made a face when she laid a hand on his arm, where the kosode was wet from sweat, "—ful…"

"Uh…" Inuyasha was suddenly reminded that he was covered in sweat, and to top it off, he smelled like sickness, which he hated.

...

At this point I still haven't finished writing chapter 18 (today is 09/15/2015) but I'm moving into my dorm and getting settled right now, so I hope I have a chance to soon.

Also, Inuyasha still hates to admit weakness, the fool. Even to your wife?